Which to use
“filles” and “fillon” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #723
- “filles” frequency rank
- #3,004
- “fillon” frequency rank
- 3727
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | filles | fillon |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de fille. | Petit coquillage comestible, appartenant au genre telline. |
Where the eye mixes filles and fillon
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses filles with fillon
A purely visual mix-up. filles (\fij\) and fillon (\fi.jɔ̃\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3727, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
filles is recorded at frequency rank #723, classified as anoun, pronounced \fij\. fillon is at rank #3,004, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fi.jɔ̃\.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 3727, this pair ranks #433,337 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of filles vs fillon
Shared letters: fil. Private to "filles": es. Private to "fillon": no.
"filles" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "fillon" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "filles" for "fillon" ever safe?
Frequency check: "filles" vs "fillon" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "filles" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fillon" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #433,337 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "filles" and "fillon" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "filez vs filles". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #433,337 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.